A Seven-Day Workshop on “Creativity and Innovation in ODL”
One of the activities of the National Centre for Innovation in Distance Education
(NCIDE) is to nurture creativity and innovation among the various functionaries of the
Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system. The NCIDE carries this out through
various capacity-building measures from time to time, and organizing training
workshop on creativity and innovation is one of them. Towards this aim of nurturing
creativity and innovation in the ODL system, the NCIDE successfully conducted a
seven-day workshop on “Creativity and Innovation in ODL” on 3rd March, 9-14 March
2016 at the Conference Room of the Radhakrishnan Block, IGNOU and the NCIDE
Conference Room in Block G, Academic Complex IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi.
The objectives of this workshop were to sensitize the Faculty of IGNOU to perceive
and understand creativity and innovation in the ODL system, and to generate creative
ideas and implement those ideas in the ODL system.
This workshop was conceived and designed by NCIDE under the vision and
mentorship of Prof. Prabir Kr. Biswas, Professor of Distance Education, Staff Training
and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE), IGNOU and NCIDE. This seven
day-workshop is essentially a One-Credit workshop of 30 hours, which was conducted
both in face to face and virtual mode in the Virtual Training Lounge, an online platform
developed by NCIDE for online training
Prof. P. K. Biswas interacting with the participants.
The face to face interaction and group activities were for two full days (9th and 10th
March, 2016) and two half days (3rd and 14th March, 2016) comprising a total of about
14 hours. The participants had been working online in the Virtual Training Lounge for
the remaining 16 hours. This was essentially a workshop by the participants and for the
participants.
In this workshop, 14 teachers from
8 Schools of Studies, IGNOU,
participated. Professor Prabir Kr.
Biswas from STRIDE was the expert
for both the face to face sessions and
in the Virtual Training Lounge, and
Dr. Jyotsna Dikshit (in virtual mode),
NCIDE and Dr. Moumita Das, NCIDE
facilitated the participants in the
Virtual Training Lounge.
The first session was conducted on
3
rd March by Prof Biswas in which the
participants were asked to talk about
their creative contributions in the
ODL system. Thereafter a few tasks were assigned to them and they were asked to
think about those tasks and discuss with other participants and mentors in the Virtual
Training Lounge between the 3rd March and 14th March.
The first task that was assigned was to think and generate ideas on how to bring in
creativity and innovation in the teaching-learning process in the Self-learning material
(SLM). They were asked to keep their learners in view. The distance teachers should
know the learners background (demographic, psychological etc.) and their learning
styles as well. They were asked to make a note on these components.
The participants were asked to list the activities and functions of the efficient classroom
teacher and to think how to incorporate all those functions into SLM. It was noted that
most of the SLM give emphasis on cognitive domain of learning. Prof. Biswas suggested
the participants to give emphasis on psychomotor/skill domain and affective domain
also. Keeping this direction in view the SLM may also be transformed into Self-working
material (SWM).
Prof Biswas suggested creation of an “ODL theme park” in IGNOU and suggested
idea generation among the participants. The participants had been active in the Virtual
Training Lounge and formed an e-mail group and WhatsApp group also and had
generated many ideas on this topic.
The Vice Chancellor Prof. Nageshwar Rao addressing the
participants at the Inaugural Session of the workshop on
9
th
March 2016 at the Conference Room, NCIDE, IGNOU.
The participants generating ideas at the workshop on
9
th
March 2016.
The Vice Chancellor of
IGNOU, Prof. Nageshwar Rao
was welcomed for the inaugural
session on 9th March by the
Director (i/c) NCIDE, Dr. O. P.
Sharma. Prof. Rao, while
inaugurating the workshop, said
this workshop on creativity was
timely. He said that there is
tremendous scope for creativity
in ODL. He talked about his own
experiences on creativity with
examples and said that although
there were initial obstacles,
eventually his efforts were
appreciated. He inspired the
participants to be imaginative and
creative. He said that creativity should go hand in hand with logic, which would
contribute to the quality of services of an organization. He said that the NCIDE should
be entrusted with the conduction of more such workshops on creativity and wished the
success of this workshop.
On 9th and 10th March, the participants learnt about various creative strategies and
have discussed, generated, analysed and evaluated many ideas on developing a
creative self working material and the ODL theme park. They used various techniques
such as brain storming, brain writing,
cluster analysis, morphological
synthesis, headstand, Dot-mocracy,
SCAMPER etc. and generated
hundreds of ideas, selected, edited
and evaluated ideas and had even
written poems, which reflect the
highest level of their creativity.
Prof Biswas also discussed how
the access devices can be used
effectively in SLM, how to integrate
latest and simple technology, and
how the ODL theme park of IGNOU
can be used for promotion of ODL,
The Virtual training Lounge and the discussion forums in it were extensively used by the
participants.
teaching and training purposes, video recording and so on. Thereafter, the participants
had been using the Virtual Training Lounge. They have been using it extensively to post
their ideas and discuss them. It is a continuous proces
